Qigong Radio

Next month, we’ll be starting a new Energy Gates course at Brookline Tai Chi, focused on Outer Dissolving and working through the Gates of the body. When you work on dissolving the gates, you will inevitably be fighting the urge to: visualize instead of feel “chase” energetic releases, untethered from the physical body wonder if you are really feeling anything at all In this episode of Qigong Radio, I’ll give my recommendations for avoiding these pitfalls and for setting up the conditions for actual energetic resolution. ...

As you know from other episodes of Qigong Radio and other interviews, I always try to track down authoritative sources when I want to learn more about a subject and share it with you. Now that my teacher Bruce Frantzis is releasing two more DVD sets on Xingyi’s Five Elements, I wanted to talk to someone about these practices. To the best of my knowledge, Isaac Kamins is the only person actively teaching the Energy Arts Xingyi curriculum who also trained with Bruce Frantzis in weekly classes for several years in the Bay Area in the 90’s. ...

When you set out to learn Taoist Energy Arts like Tai Chi, qigong, or meditation, you come across the lore of masters with supernatural abilities or techniques too deadly to teach openly. Or more insidious, we grasp after images of unattainable perfection, always slightly beyond reach, unless we just find the right technique or are initiated into a secret practice. And even if we’ve given up silly kung fu fantasies of flying through the bamboo reeds, on a subtle level we still chase ideas and dreams that only live in the mental realm. ...

In this episode of Qigong Radio, Don Miller and I explore the essential elements of Tai Chi Balance Training. As you probably know, Tai Chi is being used more and more for falls prevention programs for the elderly and becoming a mainstream part of the Western medical vocabulary. But what are the actual elements that make up a great Tai Chi balance training program? How can you use them for your own well-being? ...

In his new book, the Harvard Medical School Guide to Tai Chi, Dr. Peter Wayne lays out the “8 Active Ingredients of Tai Chi” to help us understand the interface between traditional Tai Chi practice and the Western biomedical paradigm. As the Research Director of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, jointly based at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and the founder of the Tree of Life Tai Chi Center, Peter blends more than three decades of teaching experience with ongoing inquiry into what makes Tai Chi an effective medical intervention. ...

For the last couple of years, I’ve been teaching regular workshops in Farmington, Maine. When I went up again last week, I had a fascinating conversation with one of the students. She was telling me how the core group had been coming along and that other people have come in and out of practicing with them. She said, “you know, it’s not really for everyone.” ...

In this episode of Qigong Radio, Energy Arts Senior Instructor Paul Cavel explains the 3 different layers of neigong practice: Beginner or Foundational Practices -- Dragon and Tiger, Opening the Energy Gates, and Heaven and Earth Intermediate or Power-Production Practices -- Spiraling Energy Body and Bend the Bow Advanced or Integration Practices -- Gods Playing in the Clouds Paul explains what to focus on at each level and how your learning spiral takes you back through them over time. ...

In this episode of Qigong Radio, I answer some questions about different sensations readers have been experiencing when they practice. In the Dragon and Tiger Medical Qigong Instruction Manual, Bruce Frantzis lays out important guidelines for what kinds of “chi reactions” to expect. I want to show you how to apply these guidelines to your practice. Expect Chi Reactions Dragon and Tiger is a powerful tool for awakening your body on physical, energetic, emotional, mental and spiritual levels. As you practice these movements and begin to move your body in ways that may be different for you, energy and fluids in your body are stirred up and begin to move more vigorously. At some point you may experience reactions that may seem either positive or negative to you. These are called chi reactions: the body’s response to the effects of energy beginning to flow more freely through previously blocked places. ...

In this episode of Qigong Radio, Energy Arts Senior Instructor Eric Peters describes what it’s like to work with the energy of the spine, using Bend the Bow Spinal Qigong. Bend the Bow is an advanced qigong set that requires precise alignment and refined sensitivity, but it gives you access to a much deeper level of internal connection and coordination than standard ways of moving your body through space. Eric performing Bend the Bow Spinal Qigong: ...

As you cultivate the mind-body benefits of Tai Chi, you will likely focus on solo training and interactive two-person practices like Push Hands. There’s a third kind of Tai Chi training, though, that will make the link between the other two stronger, Tai Chi Equipment Training. Using stones, balls, disks, belts, and other objects you find in nature, you can develop important attributes of the Tai Chi body and mind. ...